Biosecurity, Economic Collapse, the State to Come

Political Power in the Pandemic and Beyond
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-032-29999-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 226 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 458 g

Reihe: Directions and Developments in Criminal Justice and Law

What kind of state emerges from the pandemic? The pandemic caused two crises, in biosecurity and in the economy. The state was forced to tackle both; but subduing one inevitably exacerbated the other. Emerging from the impossible task of handling two conflicting crises is a new form of state, the state to come.

To outline the emerging state, this book offers an in-depth critical account of the state's responses to the biosecurity and the economic crises. It is thus the first study to address both crises ensuing from the pandemic, and to synthesise the responses to them in a comprehensive account of political power. Addressing biosecurity, the book deciphers its key modalities, epistemic premises, its law, the threat it aims to oppose and the ways in which it relates to public health and society — especially its extraordinary power to suspend society. Addressing the economic crisis, the book deciphers the actuality and prospects of both the economy and the state's economic policy. It claims that economic policy is now dual: it adopts countercyclical measures to serve and entrench a neoliberal economy. The responses to the twin crises inform the outline of the emerging state: its structure, logic and legality; its power and its relation to society. This is a state of extraordinary power; but its only purpose is to preserve the social order intact. It is a despotic state: powerful, and set to impose social stasis.

This work offers ground-breaking analysis based on our pandemic experience. It is indispensable for critical scholars and students in Politics, Security Studies, Sociology, Law, Political Economy and Public Health.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Boukalas, Christos

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Invalidität, Krankheit und Abhängigkeit: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Verwaltungsrecht Verwaltungspraxis Polizei
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizin, Gesundheit: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Staats- und Verfassungsrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Gesundheitssoziologie, Medizinsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: the twin crises and the capitalist state

Part I. Biosecurity

2. Medical power

3. The threat

4. Biosecurity law

5. Protect the NHS (the spectacle of public health)

6. Cancel society

7. The knowledge of biosecurity

Part II. Economic Collapse

8. Fear vs fear

9. This is not a normal crisis

10. The great mothball

11. Sacrificial labour

12. Workfare

13. Pandemic distribution

14. Towards a dual economy: welfare for capital, workfare for everyone else

Part III. The State to Come

15. Biopolitics and threat governmentality

16. From there is no alternative to whatever it takes

17. The rule of law and endless pseudo-necessity

18. Personal responsibility and the irresponsible state

19. Neoliberal despotism

20. Overcoming the order of fear

21. Postscript: Pericles and the plague

Über Autor(innen)

Christos Boukalas is a senior lecturer in Northumbria Law School. He develops a political theory of law, based on legal and state theory. His research focuses on the advent of a new form of law and state in the course of the 21st century. He has widely published critical accounts on British and American security law and policy, including the monograph Homeland Security, its Law and its State.